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The Living Room to Close at the End of December

By Ben Sisario December 8, 2015 10:11 pmDecember 8, 2015 10:11 pm

The Living Room, a no-frills nightclub that gave an early start to Norah Jones and the Lumineers, and for almost 18 years has hosted countless singer-songwriters in three locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, will close at the end of December, its owners, Steve Rosenthal and Jennifer Gilson, announced on Tuesday.

The club, founded in 1998 in a cramped space at the corner of Allen and Stanton Streets on the Lower East Side that had once been a fried chicken restaurant, quickly gained a reputation as an intimate stage that often showcased extraordinary talent. Besides Ms. Jones, its early performers — documented in a series of compilation albums — included Jesse Harris, Richard Julian, Joseph Arthur and Jesse Malin.

The Living Room moved to a more spacious room on Ludlow Street in 2003 but closed last year after being priced out of the neighborhood, Ms. Gilson and Mr. Rosenthal said. Late in 2014 it moved again, to an even bigger space in Williamsburg, where the club had a balcony and a rooftop bar — palatial digs compared to its first home — but it struggled to establish itself there.

Mr. Rosenthal is also the owner of the Magic Shop, a recording studio in SoHo that has been used by David Bowie, Lou Reed, Ms. Jones and the Foo Fighters, among many others, but that business has also been strained and may also close soon, Mr. Rosenthal said.

“Thanks so much to all the great bands that played here and gave us many memorable nights,” Ms. Gilson and Mr. Rosenthal wrote on the club’s Facebook page. “Please keep supporting live music at your local venues.”